History of Media

Ethnikos Kyrix

Ethnikos Kyrix is founded on April 2, 1915 by Petro Tatanis, a merchant.  Although it is not the first Greek-American Newspaper, it is one of the few that lasted more than a few years, and the only one to continue publishing to this day. Not much is known about the first decades of its publication, however in 1940, the newspaper was bought by a man named Basil John Vlavianos¹.

 

Basil John Vlavianos (1903- 1994)

 

Vlavianos was born on January 16, 1903 in Athens, Greece where he grew up. In 1936, King George II came back into power through a royalist coup and appointed General Ioannis Metaxas as the Prime Minister. With the King’s support, Metaxas destroyed Greece’s parliamentary government, outlawed political parties, seized communists, criminalized strikes, and advocated media-sponsorship. Vlavianos moved to Paris the following year in 1937. In 1939, Vlavianos arrived to New York where he stayed for the following 54 years.

As the editor for Ethnikos Kyrix, he served as an important informant of liberal, republican ideas during the heavy media-censorship regime of King George II. His fiercest competitor was Atlantis, a conservative, royalist paper. After the war broke out, Vlavianos was an highly active in war relief for the Greek citizens and lobbied for an end to the British blockade that was causing starvation in Greece.

In 1947, Vlavianos resigned and passed his position to Babis Marketos, who remained as the publisher for 29 years. Following Marketos, Eugene Rossides, the Undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury Department, took over as publisher for 3 years before passing the position to Antonis H. Diamataris in 1979, who remains in office as the longest-serving publisher until today.

Antonis H. Diamataris

Under Diamataris’s leadership, Ethnikos Kyrix expanded its readership in 1997, and began the serialization of the weekly english newspaper, The National Herald for the second or third generation Greek-Americans.

Cover page of a recently published Ethnikos Kyrix,

 

Atlantis

Atlantis is the first successful Greek language newspaper in the United States² . Owned by the Vlasto family, it began as a weekly newspaper, but became a daily newspaper in 1904. It ran from from 1894 to 1973. The founder, Solon J. Vlasto, was a well educated man from an upper-cretan family. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1873 and founded Atlantis with the help of his brother, Demetrius J. Vlasto. Solon was the publisher for the newspaper until his death in 1927. Demetrius served as the treasurer and secretary for the newspaper and succeeded Solon as the publisher after his death. After Demetrius’s death, their nephew Solon G. succeeded him as the publisher.

Atlantis is a well known as a family paper as well as a conservative, royalist paper. Solon shares his high regard for the Greek monarchy with his brother and his nephew. They have remained royalist papers through all the unfavorable decisions made in war, plebiscite and coup. They were actively involved in war relief campaigns and church affairs. Their opinions began to differ from the Greek government in the mid-1960s, starting with King Constantine II’s regime of the colonels. The paper lasted into the third generation, with Solon’s son, James S. and other members of the family working in the company. James S. was the editor and spokesman for the family when the company finally shut down in 1973.

Solon and his brother were also an advocator of a strong Greek-American community in the United States. They were very active in the Greek-American community in New York City. Solon was the president of the Greek society of New York, Athena as well as an exarch of the Greek Orthodox Church.